1. Field
The present disclosure relates generally to managing a network and, in particular, to managing the exchange of data between nodes within a network. Still more particularly, the disclosure relates to a configuration for a node in a network that allows secure data to be received and transmitted based on a predetermined schedule.
2. Background
Networks are frequently used to exchange data between hardware devices such as, for example, computers, servers, user devices, and other types of devices. As used herein, a “network” may be comprised of one or more computer networks that are interconnected. This type of network may also be referred to as an “internetwork”. A “computer network”, as used herein, is a collection of computers and/or processors that are interconnected by communications channels that allow data to be exchanged. The Internet is an example of a network comprised of multiple interconnected computer networks.
The data exchanged between hardware devices in a network may take the form of, for example, data streams. Each data stream may be comprised of data packets. Data packets may also be referred to as network packets in some cases. Exchanging data may include receiving data packets and/or sending data packets.
Data may be transmitted from a source device in a network to a destination device in the network using one or more nodes in the network. As used herein, a “node” includes any hardware equipment that may be used to receive data packets, process these data packets, and then send these data packets to one or more other nodes in the network and/or to a destination device. The data packets received at the node may be received from a source device and/or from one or more nodes in the network.
The hardware equipment that forms a node may include, for example, without limitation, any number of routing devices, switching devices, buffers, control lines, gateways, and/or other types of equipment. The different nodes in a network form a node network within the network.
In some situations, an undesired inconsistency may occur during the exchange of data within a network. The undesired inconsistency may be, for example, without limitation, a buffer overflow, a denial of service event, a server crash, a loss of data packets, or some other type of undesired event that occurs during the exchange of data. Various solutions for reducing the possibility of an undesired inconsistency during the exchanging of data within a network are currently available. However, some of these currently available solutions may not be as effective as desired.
For example, some currently available solutions may be able to prevent only certain types of undesired inconsistencies and not others. For example, some currently available methods for preventing buffer overflow use software addressing or memory techniques. However, these techniques may be unable to protect against heap overflows as well as stack-based overflows.
As another example, some currently available methods for preventing denial of service events may try to stop the flow of data packets received from unauthorized source devices by denying data packets received from certain ports, data packets received from certain internet protocol (IP) addresses, and/or data packets received based on certain communications protocols. However, these methods may be unable to protect against unauthorized source devices that use for example, without limitation, protocol spoofing, internet protocol address spoofing, and/or other types of techniques. Therefore, it would be desirable to have a method and apparatus that takes into account at least some of the issues discussed above, as well as other possible issues.